[hdowns]

We have been waiting for an infant referral from Colombia for almost 2 years now. We have been told that we are just a couple months away since last August. I am feeling like we may need to take some action to reclaim this process, as much as that is possible with adoption, and that Colombia may not be for us.

I have thought a lot about adopting from Ethiopia and maybe the truth is that our baby is waiting for us there.

We already have a homestudy done that has been updated in the last few months, we can change our I-171 to reflect a new country pretty quickly (San Francisco seems to be a fast office). What else needs to be done before applying to Ethiopia? It sounds like you get the dossier prepared AFTER you get a referral. What do you send to Ethiopia to get the referral?

Then, once you are told to get your dossier together, what documents need to be included?

I ask all this because we won't consider moving countries unless we can believe that things move pretty quickly.

Are there any other things I should be considering??

Oh, and we are open to either a boy or girl under a year old.

Thanks,
Heather

[gav123]

My wife and I just started the process in Ethiopia so I can't say much about the latter end of the process but from all accounts (and we have talked to all the agencies and successful adoptive parents), once you get your dossier completed - you can have a referral within a few weeks. Especially since you are open to both boys and girls.

[hopefully4]

from Russia to Ethiopia. We updated our homestudy on a Thursday and had our referral on Friday. Our son was a waiting child, who was born at the end of January. We received our referral on April 8th and traveled on June 19th. Were it not for the political situation in Addis at the time, we would have traveled a week earlier. The dossier is really easy, at least compared to Russia. We were able to complete it in about a week. I was so pleased with my agency and with our experience. My husband and I are so lucky to have our wonderful little boy in our lives. I know how frustrating it can be to live in the limbo of international adoption waits, and I could not be happier with our decision. All right, enough gushing.

Katie

[blueberry1966]

You will need your dossier to get a referral, but you probably have most of what you need, if you had a dossier for another country. It would probably take less than a month to get your dossier together, and submit it for authentification.

Our adoption from start (first informational meeting) to finish (children in arms) took approximately 9 months. The referral came very quickly (probably less than one week) after the dossier was submitted, and we traveled 5-6 weeks after recieving the referral.

[snvanvl]

Our process started on Febuary 21st with our first homestudy visit and we got home with 2 children - boy age 16 months and girl age 7 months last Saturday. Our process took just a little over 5 months from start to finish.
Christy

www.vanvleetfamily.com

[hilzim]

Ethiopia is a pretty quick process. From the time we put in our application till we picked up our children was five months. We did get older children, but my experience talking to other families was the wait for a baby was only about one month more. While I was in Addis, there were 29 babies in the orphanage! You are already into the process pretty far, I wouldn't think you would be waiting all that long.
Hilda